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Pharma in China, untapped markets and drug development

Updated: Apr 27, 2022

Season 2: episode 7

In this episode, GOLD speaks to Isabel Afonso, General Manager, Novartis Oncology China, about the pharmaceutical landscape of the country and in what ways biotechs and untapped markets offer opportunities in the area.

As well as an update on recent pharma news, GOLD has a conversation with Dr Farid Khan, CEO and Founder, PharmaKure, about the ongoing need for drug development, the mechanics of protein engineering and AI.


A little more on GOLD’s guests…


Isabel Afonso was appointed General Manager at Novartis in November 2021, after around 20 years at the company in both IT and commercial roles. Prior to this, she acted as Chief Commercial Officer at the rehabilitation and sports medicine business Performance Health in a three-year gap from the pharma giant. She has attended programmes on general management and business leadership from INSEAD and IMD, and holds a certification in genetics and genomics from Stanford University School of Medicine.


Dr. Farid Khan founded PharmaKure in 2014 – a speciality biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. He has additionally acted as a drug discovery scientist for GlaxoSmithKline, and has held academic positions in biotechnology at The Babraham Institute in Cambridge and at The University of Manchester. He obtained his PhD in protein engineering from Cambridge University and has also been awarded a master’s degree in parasitology and a bachelor’s in chemistry.

Additional resources


If you’re interested in learning more about the topic areas discussed in this episode, check out the following content:

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